One of the biggest new headlines in the massive shift toward a decentralized Internet emerges today at Cointelegraph where reporter Michael Kapilkov reveals that crypto firm Chainlink is going to put its crypto prices on an Ethereum blockchain to revolutionize its web hosting.
This story cites the Unstoppable Domains company as a stakeholder in this innovative project.
In looking back through the last couple of years, the move of Internet sites and resources to new decentralized domains like .crypto and .eth is having a massive impact on how we view domain name registration in general.
Unlike any previous Internet domains ever, these decentralized domains don’t have to go through the approval of the DNS or deal with the IANA.
“Although Chainlink’s price feeds are decentralized, companies like (Chainlink node provider) Vulcan Link have to rely on centralized domain registrars like GoDaddy and centralized hosting services like Google or Amazon Web Services for their own websites,” Kapilov explains. “Theoretically, their website could be turned off at any time. Unlike a ‘.com’ domain, users can purchase a ‘.crypto’ domain outright. As long as the Ethereum blockchain is running, the domain should be operational.”
Furthermore, Kapilkov notes, while most common browsers don’t support these decentralized domains, there’s news that Opera and others are going to more fully participate in bringing web surfers to the decentralized domain extensions.
At first, these domains were primarily used to transfer cryptocurrency funds. But with moves like the one that Chainlink is advertising today, the new web 3.0 could be partially composed of the decentralized Internet where blockchain domains are censorship resistant.
“In its effort to carve a niche in the browser market, Opera has been embracing cryptocurrency. Back in December 2018, it added a built-in crypto wallet to its Android browser and then later to its desktop browser,” wrote Kieren McCarthy at the U.K. site The Register just weeks ago, in a cheeky broadside to IANA on the last day of March. “It then extended that to allow for purchases with cryptocurrency. As such, adding a simple addressing system makes sense. It is also a vote of confidence in Unstoppable Domains and Ethereum’s alternate root approach.”
If you are making any kind of blockchain play, it will pay to consider how a new decentralized Internet will change the game. Take note.
